Opening Headlight without Cutting?

whodatfan · March 13, 2015

Any specific type of butyl selant needed? I see you said you used TRS.

d3m0n · March 13, 2015

We bake now. Lol. But believe me, after cutting open over 500 lights, lol, you can't tell the difference. Also, some guys who try to bake are going to find that they mutilate the black channel in trying to get open, especially if this is their first battle with permaseal. Ha. Ruin that channel and the likelihood of a leak goes up.

Not sure what happened to Carl's bracket. I think it is a bad print layer perhaps. Glad he made it work though.

what do you charge to do this? do you send the headlights and i send my stock ones back?

dcarl · March 13, 2015

I ordered from TRS in their Accessory section. It's really just the same as used for windshield installation. If you go the Retrofit Source website and look at the tutorials, you'll see there is one for installing butyl into the headlight channel. Hope this helps.

John_chadra1 · March 23, 2015

I used black RTV to seal mine back up. I actually have them apart again right now while the truck is getting painted, lol.

Dunc · March 25, 2015

For what it's worth even though it's been discussed....

I received my spare headlight yesterday and baked it open. It actually wasn't nearly as bad as I anticipated and I opted for lower temps as well. I preheated to 225* and baked for 8 minutes. I didn't go to town with a flathead screwdriver, just took my time prying little by little. I had to reheat 4 (maybe 5) times at 8 minutes each before it was completely apart. The last one I left it in for 9 minutes. Woohoo, let the mounting bracket fabrication begin!

Mekanik · March 26, 2015

I bake all the lights I do halos and retros in. 225 for 10min is usually enough

Sierra14man · April 12, 2015

Hey guys. I just finished color matching the trim on the bumper and grill parts to my truck. I want to do the headlights. I would like to do them white but as someone said above it would be a lot of white. So what do you guys think would better to match what I have already done?. I was even thinking of doing them with white and black??

Mike1220 · April 13, 2015

Hey guys. I just finished color matching the trim on the bumper and grill parts to my truck. I want to do the headlights. I would like to do them white but as someone said above it would be a lot of white. So what do you guys think would better to match what I have already done?. I was even thinking of doing them with white and black??

Could you post a picture with the truck in the sun for easier viewing?

Badnewcastle · April 14, 2015

They look awesome OP!

Sierra14man · April 14, 2015

Could you post a picture with the truck in the sun for easier viewing?

Here ya go. It's not in the sun but it's out in the open.

FastWS6TA · April 24, 2015

Here ya go. It's not in the sun but it's out in the open.

GrnMtnRider · May 23, 2015

Update:

I just finished baking open my headlights and here are a few notes.

On the first light I started at 220 degrees for 8 minutes, then I did 220 for 10 minutes, then I did 245 for 8 minutes, then 245 for 10 minutes and finally another 8 minutes at 245 did the trick. Needless to say it was a very tedious and frustrating process.

Now for the good news. On the second light I started at 265 for 12 minutes. That seemed to work well and I was able to loosen up quite a bit of the lens. I did another 15 minutes at 265 and with a little tender manipulation the lens came out nicely.

Needless to say I'd recommend starting with 265 to save yourself some trouble.

I also noticed that I had the best luck by starting to loosen the lens on the side opposite of the turn signal. It seemed to be the easiest place to start prying back the housing and getting a "foothold". I started by using a butter knife and then some interior panel removing tools but I realized that a good ol' screwdriver worked the best. The sharp edge made it easier to cut through the sealant. Obviously you just need to be careful and apply gradual pressure.

If anyone has any questions I'd be happy to help the best I can. Can't wait to see the finished product!

Dangerdick · May 24, 2015

I've opened them in less than half an hour

18 minutes at 260 will let you get most of the seal broken, then another 8 minutes to finish it

GrnMtnRider · May 24, 2015

Yes, the 260-265 temp range for around 15 minutes seems to be the sweet spot. As this was my first time I thought it would be safer to start at the lower heat some members were using and work my way up.

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ChevyWife83 · July 8, 2015

I did my Silverado heat lights a few weeks ago.

Dude.. this is amazing! I want this done to my truck soooooo bad and would like someone that has done it before to do it. I am in Eastern PA if anyone wants to help! I recently bought awesome looking lights off Ebay and they were China crap and did not work at all!!! Been looking to do this for MONTHS now!